Building My First Scrubber?

[FragFarmer]

I'm editing this 1st post and the title of the thread. It's turned into a build thread more than just the initial question.




Where do you find the screen?
Depot? Online? Where?

Thanks

[ocean rock]

are you in uk or usa?

[FragFarmer]

USA Colorado.

[SantaMonica]

Try going to craft or sewing stores, or just get one of these online:

http://www.everythingplasticcanvas.com/ ... -x-18.aspx (http://www.everythingplasticcanvas.com/pc-20049-260-plastic-canvas-7-mesh-12-x-18.aspx)

[FragFarmer]

Found it at the local Hobby Lobby. It's that plastic stuff that old ladies use for sewing patterns with thick string. It has 100 squares per square inch. 10x10 I bought a piece thats 10" x 13" for 89 cents.

Looking at the design guides posted on this website:
0.5 actual (not equivalent) fluorescent watts per gallon MINIMUM [0.13 watts per liter].
1.0 actual (not equivalent) fluorescent watts per gallon for HIGH filtering [0.26 watts per liter].
1.0 square inches of screen per gallon, with bulbs on BOTH sides (10 x 10 = 100 square inches = 100 gal)
[1.64 square cm per liter]
2.0 square inches of screen per gallon, if vertical but lit on just ONE side. [3.28 square cm per liter]
4.0 square inches of screen per gallon, if HORIZONTAL [6.56 square cm per liter].
1.5 actual (not equivalent) fluorescent watts per gallon if HORIZONTAL [0.4 watts per liter].
18 hours of lights ON, and 6 hours of lights OFF, each day.
Flow is 24 hours, and is at least 35 gph per inch of width of screen, EVEN IF one sided [60 lph per cm].
Very rough screen made of roughed-up-like-a-cactus plastic canvas.
Clean algae off of screen every SEVEN (7) days NO MATTER WHAT.

My system has about 50g of water. A 5.5g tank is 16" long and my plastic canvas mat is 13" long. So, I'll go ahead and use the full width of the mat. The tank is 10" deep and I'll be drilling a hole for a 1" bulk head near the bottom, so I figure I'll have about 8" of mat vertically. 13x8=104 square inches. I'm going to light it on both sides with 18W CFL bulbs using cheap 6" clamp-on shop light fixtures. I'm using a Magnum canister filter to push water from the skimmer section of my sump over to the scrubber. It only puts out about 250gph though. Not sure thats enough to do the job. It's what I got right now, so it'll have to do.

Can post pics if people want to see.

[SantaMonica]

Make sure the pump has the gph that you need.

[FragFarmer]

It's built, but the camera batteries got hijacked to run the kids' Wii video game. Of course, they run the batteries down, but when it comes time to charge them, everybody has amnesia. Can't remember how to plug those batteries into the charger and then plug it into the 110V wall outlet. Can't take any pics until they charge up again. :(

I definitely need a bigger pump. The canister hasn't got the ummph. Instead of a fully wet screen, I've got 7 or 8 trails of water flowing down and a lot of dry screen. I ended up using a piece of 1" PVC about 16" long for my manifold. I used a dremel cutting wheel to put a slice 13" long in the pipe. Then I shoved the long edge of the plastic mat into the slice. Snug fit. I capped one end of the PVC and on the other end I used a 3/4" male threaded bushing. I got a 3/4" female hose barb nipple and screwed that onto the pvc bushing. Connected my 3/4" vinyl hose to the nipple and then connected the other end to the outlet on the canister. It's pushing water uphill about 10 inches. Not a lot of flow.

Also, I need to rig up a bracket so I can clamp each light in a better spot. Right now, the lights are just clamped to the top rim of the tank and kinda shining down in there. I am thinking of a bracket that allows me to shine each light directly into the side of the tank. Is there any reason why the scrubber don't work if I shine the lights through the glass?

[SantaMonica]

They won't be as strong.

[FragFarmer]

I might cut the spray bar down to only 8" wide and go with an 8x10 screen. Thats 80 square inches on a 50g system. If I cut it down to only 8" wide I can flip the spray bar 90* and run is across the short side of the tank. Then I can clamp a light on each end of the tank and get them pointed more directly at the screen. But shortening the spray bar, I should have increased flow over the screen.

[SantaMonica]

That is better.

[FragFarmer]

It's done. Switched it around. I shortened the spraybar so now have a 7.5w x 8.5h screen. It looks like it should work. I did a quick test run after letting the glue sit for 20 minutes and the flow is substantially improved. I'm probably still a little bit low on the flow but it seams to be moving pretty fast now. The magnum is supposed to be 250gph. I was able to shorten the hose down to about 18" and dropped total head down to about 9" so it should be pumping a lot more water now. I am estimating around 200pgh. Seams about like a medium size powerhead.

I put each light on the tank ends and pointed them down about 45* angle. I'm going to let the pvc glue finish curing for about an hour and then I'll turn it on.

Roughly 200gph over a 7.5" screen and 36 real watts of 2700k CFL curlyq bulbs. Should work. Thank you SM!

[FragFarmer]

Only 3 days into it and I see my screen turning just the faintest hint of brown. I think it's safe to say, we've got diatoms!! :mrgreen:

I made a small rack from left-over 3/4" pvc parts. I now have my lights a lot closer.

Here's a pic.

[FragFarmer]

Side view

The lamps may look far from the screen. They are not. Keep in mind, this is a little 5.5g tank. The light reflectors are 6" diameter. I have not measured the distance, but I don't think the lights are more than 3" from the screen.

[FragFarmer]

New pump :lol:

http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww192/Frag_Farmer/Turf%20Scrubber/th_MVI_4461.jpg (http://s719.photobucket.com/albums/ww192/Frag_Farmer/Turf%20Scrubber/?action=view&current=MVI_4461.mp4)

[SantaMonica]

Starting out nice

[FragFarmer]

I was using a Magnum HOT canister - 250gph. Junk.

The Via Aqua is 480gph and much more powerful as far as fighting head pressure.

Stay tuned, I'm about to drill a hole and do a bulk head mounted scrubber. Darn cordless drill batteries are dead. Waiting to charge. :(

Da plan....

[FragFarmer]

I was having trouble with water creeping out of the slot in my PVC tube and dripping off the ends. Problem solved. I cracked the tank, but it doesn't matter because it's out of the water.

[FragFarmer]

Side shot

[SantaMonica]

Can you move the lights down a bit to the middle?

[FragFarmer]

I could, but then the entire light fixture would be 100% inside the tank. I'm a little worried about mixing water and electricity. :lol:

It's growing really good. I'm not getting any slime. Mostly brown algae right now, but keep in mind I've only been at this for maybe a month. It looks kinda "leafy" - definitely not just slime - there's leafy structure there. It's very heavy and coarse brown algae thats hard to scrape off. Having to use a putty knife to clean the screen.

My screen/pvc pipe is clogging after about 4 days. It's not totally clogged, but flow is reduced by at least 50% after 4 days. With 480gph running over the screen, I would have thought there's no way it will clog. How can I reduce clogging in the pipe?

Thanks Santa Monica! Dude, this is really helping my tank a lot!! I've been plagued with slimey green cyano in my tank for months. It's disappearing. Getting thinner and lighter shade of green every day. I'm so happy to see coraline growing on my glass again, instead of green slime. Thank you!! I can't completely express my gratitude from behind this keyboard. :mrgreen:

[SantaMonica]

Yay!!

[FragFarmer]

Any recommendations on how to stop my screen/pipe from clogging?

[SantaMonica]

Here are some simple light-shields:

http://www.radio-media.com/fish/UserBrontyOnSARK-7.jpg


http://www.radio-media.com/fish/UserToddoOnAS-3.jpg


http://www.radio-media.com/fish/UserSaltCrittersOnTR-1.jpg


http://www.radio-media.com/fish/UserJdlOnAS-2.jpg


http://www.radio-media.com/fish/UserGrAhF11onRP-1.jpg

[FragFarmer]

Gotcha! Thanks!!